Originally Posted by Dr. Freda Turner, Northcentral University, Chair, School of Business

Hello Leadership team in the School of Business,

I’m delighted to tell you that the visitors from the Higher Learning Commission have completed their visit of Northcentral Univeristy. During the exit interview, the site visitors informed us of their recommendation to the HLC commission is for reaccreditation. Thanks to all for your support, your hard work, and let’s keep moving. We want NCU to be the #1 provider of online education .

I wanted to let all know of this great news since your are part of the NCU leadership team. Everyone here is in high spirits. I hope you are delighted as well as it does take a whole village……We all have been working hard here at headquarters.

GW University is a prestigious and well regarded school. Established in the heart of the nation's capital in 1821, GW provides innovative programs in more than 200 fields of study, including graduate certificate, master's and doctoral programs. Under the guidance of a world-renowned faculty, you will explore both theory and practice in courses that prepare you to meet the needs of an increasingly complex society.

Here is all I know. They posted this on the NCU learner site yesterday. It doesn't mean reaccreditation. I think it means that it seems favorable.

February 28, 2008

Letter to Members of the Northcentral University Community:

I would like to thank our faculty, staff, mentors, learners, partnering institutions, and representatives in our community for their assistance with the University’s Higher Learning Commission reaffirmation of accreditation process. As you know, this week Northcentral University hosted a five member team of consultant-evaluators from the Higher Learning Commission. This team reviewed and evaluated our status in regards to continued accreditation.

The team stated that they will be recommending to the Higher Learning Commission that continued accreditation be granted to Northcentral University. The policy of the Higher Learning Commission does not allow us to share any details of this recommendation with our community until the recommendation has been approved by the Board of Trustees of the Higher Learning Commission. The full process, from the team submitting its report to the Higher Learning Commission to the Higher Learning Commission’s Board of Trustees rendering a final decision on the team’s recommendation, may take up to three or four months.

Again, I want to thank you for your continued support and assistance during our reaffirmation of accreditation process.

NCU receives reaffirmation

I was at the site visit. I am a Learner in the business school. The team recommended only 3 years reaffirmation, close monitoring of the board of trustee's activities, and yet a follow up focus visit in one year. So this is not hearsay-I heard this from the team chair's mouth at the exit interview. Nothing refarious? I don't think anything is refarious, they are just spinning it to sound as positive as possible.

Ten years is the what most schools in good standing get. 7 years would have been very good. 5 years is what NCU got the first time around, so put your thinking caps on people-3 years is not a resounding vote of approval. This was about board governance. The board changes there faster than the speed of light. The HLC is very concerned about governance and how decisions are made. Asking for copies of minutes of each meeting says, "we are watching you and want to ensure this is a real board not a kangaroo board that serves at the pleasure of the owner. " The academic changes that have happened spun the place out of control. Some of us who were present as Learners spoke our truth regarding out most recent experiences. No support -dissertations languishing, no communicaton (real communication-not political diatribe) from our administration. It will take months for the information to become public. The recommendations are written up, sent back to the institution. The institution then will reply. Then a review panel or committee at the HLC meets and reviews and then their is a HLC board that meets. This is what the HLC team told us.

So the real truth will not be public for months. In the meanwhile, the recommendation is for only 3 years which is not enough time for most doctoral Learners to come in and finish. So while people listen to what the dean of the school of business wrote and the president wrote-it is misleading. I was there. I was interviewed along with fellow Learners. I heard the outcome.
I am happy that they didn't closedown. I am out of there is less than 3 months. With the chaos that is inside, they were lucky, because the HLC didn't want to strand all the Learners. And, you should know, that all the changes the provost made fell flat-academically unsound and not in the best interests of serving students.

So, be wary of these advertisements you read on the internal blogs. They are not telling the "whole" story, just the spin.

Unsubtantiated. I was there my friend. I was one of the invited Learners. I was interviewed. I heard the outcome. 3 years. The very least you can get with stiff monitoring of activities. Learners are not happy that they are being mislead now with comments saying reaffirmation-yes they recommended reaffirmation, but only for 3 years. The team was not impressed with the answers they got from the Board and from the administration.

THink about this. A president leaves. A new one is put in place the same day. An entire new board is put in place. A new provost comes in and fires the education chair-who had the fastest growing program. They try to cover up by saying the schools were in financial trouble without giving the schools details on all the expenses the administration was spending. They hire a president, a provost and a COO (combined salaries over 600K per year), raise the rent,slap on high management fees, and then fire faculty -funny you don't need faculty but you need these highly paid guys? The HLC saw that the academic changes plummeted the place into chaos. They saw no consistency in the board. NCU was lucky that the HLC doesn't want to strand the students. So, don't say my post isn't substantiated. I was there.

GW University is a prestigious and well regarded school. Established in the heart of the nation's capital in 1821, GW provides innovative programs in more than 200 fields of study, including graduate certificate, master's and doctoral programs. Under the guidance of a world-renowned faculty, you will explore both theory and practice in courses that prepare you to meet the needs of an increasingly complex society.

The credible source is the dean of the School of Business. She is an employee. Nice lady but wants to keep her job. The provost told her to post and told her what to post. I was there. So were other Learners who told "their" truth. That is why they got only 3 years as a recommendation.

The information age...

Originally Posted by dbahomeland

I was at the site visit. I am a Learner in the business school. The team recommended only 3 years reaffirmation, close monitoring of the board of trustee's activities, and yet a follow up focus visit in one year. So this is not hearsay-I heard this from the team chair's mouth at the exit interview. Nothing refarious? I don't think anything is refarious, they are just spinning it to sound as positive as possible.

Ten years is the what most schools in good standing get. 7 years would have been very good. 5 years is what NCU got the first time around, so put your thinking caps on people-3 years is not a resounding vote of approval. This was about board governance. The board changes there faster than the speed of light. The HLC is very concerned about governance and how decisions are made. Asking for copies of minutes of each meeting says, "we are watching you and want to ensure this is a real board not a kangaroo board that serves at the pleasure of the owner. " The academic changes that have happened spun the place out of control. Some of us who were present as Learners spoke our truth regarding out most recent experiences. No support -dissertations languishing, no communicaton (real communication-not political diatribe) from our administration. It will take months for the information to become public. The recommendations are written up, sent back to the institution. The institution then will reply. Then a review panel or committee at the HLC meets and reviews and then their is a HLC board that meets. This is what the HLC team told us.

So the real truth will not be public for months. In the meanwhile, the recommendation is for only 3 years which is not enough time for most doctoral Learners to come in and finish. So while people listen to what the dean of the school of business wrote and the president wrote-it is misleading. I was there. I was interviewed along with fellow Learners. I heard the outcome.
I am happy that they didn't closedown. I am out of there is less than 3 months. With the chaos that is inside, they were lucky, because the HLC didn't want to strand all the Learners. And, you should know, that all the changes the provost made fell flat-academically unsound and not in the best interests of serving students.

So, be wary of these advertisements you read on the internal blogs. They are not telling the "whole" story, just the spin.

If what you say is true, then it's all good. I've seen the regional accreditors put colleges on probation where if they didn't make specific changes pronto, then their regional accreditation would be yanked (I forgot the term for this). So if NCU gets continued approval from the regional accreditors for another 3, 5, 7 or 10 years, then that's a good sign, indeed. NCU is the first school in the United States to offer regionally accredited doctoral degrees that are 100% online and, as such, continued close scrutiny is to be expected to ensure that it's legit. It's an experiment in the making in the 21st Century. If NCU eventually loses its regional accreditation, then that would probably be the fate of all future proposals by all colleges and universities to offer doctoral degrees that are 100% online. What you see now is historic and it's unfolding before your very eyes. This is the information age.

All I said was that the first poster didn't offer information because that "information" wasn't substantiated by either (a) the evidence offered nor (b) the identity of the person standing by the post. That's all. Frankly, I didn't have much doubt about the information itself, just the way it was represented.

As for NCU, this is a good outcome. Because they were being considered for re-accreditation, putting them on notice (bad) or probation (worse) wasn't appropriate. But, given the short re-accreditation period, the outcome is the same. They're on a short leash.

Three years isn't enough time to get in and get out of a doctoral program, true. But it is enough time to get done if one is already there. But the three years isn't even a guarantee; HLC could pull its accreditation at any time, assuming due process.

This is why I've got to start cracking the whip a bit harder on myself and get it done. I can probably finish in less than 1.5 years. 1.5 years doesn't seem too bad now that I'm this far into it.

Bing

Originally Posted by Rich Douglas

Three years isn't enough time to get in and get out of a doctoral program, true. But it is enough time to get done if one is already there. But the three years isn't even a guarantee; HLC could pull its accreditation at any time, assuming due process.

3 year recommendation

If you think 3 years is a sign of confidence, then you don't understand accreditation. You might want to spend some time on the higherlearningcommission site. UoP , Capella , Walden got ten years. Even Argosy got 7. When you only get 3 that is low as they can go without putting the school on probation. So as a student, this doesn't say anything to me about the university being in good shape. If you were at the site visit, you would have heard the questions, the concerns, etc. about all the abrupt changes, lack of planning, and confusion. As of last fall, the faculty (most of which were fired) and the employees were highly confident that they would get at least 5 if not 7. When you have one person making all these big decisions you lose focus, which I think is what happened to NCU. Too bad, really, because they had a great rep when I entered. Under the old administration they got ACBSP accreditation for their b-school, and the numbers were jumping. I remember one of the team members saying that academics now lacked infrastructure and support, and they were relying heavily on only adjuncts. Do you know what the ratios are of Capella and Walden regarding full time academics to students? NCU, given they are top heavy with doctoral students, no longer has the support it had. The Learners that were present spoke their truth. I think NCU should consider itself lucky that it got 3 years. I figure the HLC didn't want to have all the students homeless , because if they got probation, there would be a mass exodus of people. Anyway, this is what I know from being there and from studying the higher learning commission web site.

Argosy University

Argosy University

Argosy offers online Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate in Business Administration, psychology, and HR-related degrees, with many specialty degrees, including organizational psychology, exercise psychology, HR, public administration, higher education administration, and many more.

Argosy also offers the same degrees and more from 19 locations across the U.S., and is a leader in the distance/online education field.

Argosy has one of the largest graduate student communities in the nation, and is regionally accredited, the most widely recognized accreditation.

Capella provides working adults the opportunity to earn online degrees in the fields of business management, health care, nursing, criminal justice, higher education, psychology, social work, human resources, information technology, mental health and counseling, K-12 education, public safety and public administration, and public service leadership.

The school is regionally accredited, the most widely recognized accreditation.

UoP is probably the largest, most popular online school in the US. With the largest selection of degrees, you can easily find the specific program you are interested in. They offer Arts & Religion(Associate's and Bachelor's), Business and MBA(Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's), Computers and Information Technology(Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's), Education and Teaching(Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Doctoral), Health and Medicine/Nursing(Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's), Science and Technology(Bachelor's), and Social Sciences/Criminal Justice(Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Doctoral).

The school is regionally accredited, the most widely recognized accreditation.

Theo the Educated Derelict
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship, City University of Seattle, 1992
MBA, Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993

Politics is made from two words: "poly" meaning "many" and "ticks" meaning "blood-sucking insects."

All I said was that the first poster didn't offer information because that "information" wasn't substantiated by either (a) the evidence offered nor (b) the identity of the person standing by the post. That's all. Frankly, I didn't have much doubt about the information itself, just the way it was represented.

As for NCU, this is a good outcome. Because they were being considered for re-accreditation, putting them on notice (bad) or probation (worse) wasn't appropriate. But, given the short re-accreditation period, the outcome is the same. They're on a short leash.

Three years isn't enough time to get in and get out of a doctoral program, true. But it is enough time to get done if one is already there. But the three years isn't even a guarantee; HLC could pull its accreditation at any time, assuming due process.

Congratulations to those currently enrolled.

Correct me if I am wrong (which I might be), but under any school's worst case senario, wouldn't the school be placed on probation first before the accreditation was revoked? If I am not mistake, a school placed on probation usually has one year to start moving forward. Again, if anyone has more experience, please correct me...

From my limited experience, a focus visit is a big deal. The institution where I work at went though this process last year to address concerns (board governance and program outcomes assessment were the major concerns).